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Heart inflammation is your body’s natural reaction to an infection or injury to the heart. To protect your body, your white blood cells send chemicals that increase blood flow to the area. This can lead to redness, swelling, or pain. Inflammation can affect the lining of your heart or valves, the heart muscle, or the tissue around the heart.
Chest pain or discomfort that does not go away or occurs while you are resting might be a sign of a heart attack. If you do not know whether your chest pain is angina or a heart attack, call 9-1-1 right away. All chest pain should be checked by a healthcare provider.
Mental health problems, such as stress, marital stress, anxiety, depression, or low social support; Metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems; Overweight and obesity; Some factors raise women’s risk of coronary heart disease more than they increase the risk for men, including ...
Reduced blood flow to your heart, which can cause a heart attack; Pregnancy complications; Thrombocytopenia and thrombocytosis can also cause your bone marrow to become scarred or to produce too many blood cells. This may lead to some types of leukemia. Learn how you can manage these platelet disorders to help avoid complications.
Heart disease is a catch-all phrase for a variety of conditions that affect the heart’s structure and how it works. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Coronary heart disease is a type of heart disease where the arteries of the heart cannot deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart.
Myocarditis can affect small or large sections of the heart muscle, making it harder for the heart to pump blood. Myocarditis can lead to other serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmias. Inflammation can extend to the pericardium and cause a condition called myopericarditis.
This test is a type of cardiac computed tomography (CT) scan. Coronary calcium scans can also help assess coronary heart disease risk for people who smoke or who do not have heart disease symptoms. Stress tests check how your heart works during physical activity or in response to a medication. During stress testing, you walk or run on a ...
If you have mild heart failure, you may not notice any symptoms except during hard physical work. Symptoms can depend on whether you have left-sided or right-sided heart failure. However, you can have symptoms of both types. Symptoms usually get worse as your heart grows weaker. Heart failure can lead to serious and life-threatening complications.
Medicines can help treat the inflammation or lower your body’s immune response. Many people recover with few or no long-term problems. Sometimes the disease causes permanent scarring (fibrosis) in the lungs or other organs and can lead to life-threatening heart or lung problems.
Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. The chemicals you inhale when you smoke cause damage to your heart and blood vessels that makes you more likely to develop atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in the arteries. Any amount of smoking, even occasional smoking, can cause this damage to the heart and blood vessels.